


A Single Umbrella

by felinedetached



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 16:03:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10994271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/felinedetached/pseuds/felinedetached
Summary: au: jake forgets his umbrella. a handsome stranger lends him one. jake is supposed to give the umbrella back but keeps it. a year later dirk strider looks up in the grocery store and says, "youre the asshole who stole my umbrella!"Otherwise known as my friends need to stop giving me inspiration.





	A Single Umbrella

Your shoulders are wet, your hair plastered to your face. Your glasses are splattered with raindrops, and you take them off, wipe them on your shirt, and put them back on. The lenses fill with raindrops almost immediately. Sighing, you shift to stand under a tree in an attempt to get out of the worst of the rain. The large leaves above you block most of the rain, and you decide to hang out there for a while. You start when someone taps you on your shoulder. A handsome boy in shades stands there, looking vaguely nervous. He has an umbrella in his hand.

“I noticed you didn’t have an umbrella,” he says, ignorant of the water now falling over him. “Here. You can borrow mine.” The umbrella he hands you is large, enough to fit two people under. It’s black, with an orange hat on each fold of the canopy. You look up to thank him, or maybe offer to walk with him to where he is going - if it’s in the right direction - but he’s already gone. Looking back at the umbrella you notice something on the tag - it’s writing, in vivid orange - his name, perhaps? You lift the umbrella closer, and it is a name written on that tag.

Dirk Strider.

You’ll give his umbrella back to him tomorrow, if you can find him. After all, you only have his name to find him with.  
_______

The path home would have been long and cold without your borrowed umbrella.

“I’m home!” You call, opening the door and shaking the water off ‘Dirk’s’ umbrella. Someone whines and you look up - Bec’s sitting by the kitchen door. Electricity crackles in the air - he’s upset. Really upset. Something’s wrong.

“Bec?” You ask, cautiously inching forwards, “What happened?” He whines again, backing into the kitchen. You follow - he obviously wants to show you something. That something is stark against the kitchen floor - red shoes, a black dress and snow white hair.

“Grandma?”

Everything goes green.  
_______

The kitchen is empty.  
_______

The shopping bag is surprisingly heavy in your hand as you pick it up, biting into your fingers as you carry it out of the supermarket. The sun is bright, and you squint as you scan the car park for your car. Across the asphalt, a tall figure slides off a motorbike. You think you recognise him from somewhere, but you’re not entirely sure where. He looks up, directly at you, and waves. You don’t think you know him, but apparently he knows you, so you walk over. This is _probably_ a bad idea.

“You’re that guy I lent my umbrella to!” He says, and your mind instantly flashes back to that rainy day last year. That rainy day when you came home to your grandmother, sprawled on the cool tiled floor, and dropped a borrowed umbrella onto the tiles.

“Oh,” you say, “I didn’t mean to steal it - I’m awfully sorry, chum!” He stares at you from behind those anime shades. “You see, when I got home I found that my grandmother had died whilst i was out, and I was awfully distraught-” and fuck, you can’t continue that sentence, you think you’re going to cry. You don’t want to break down crying in front of this handsome stranger who once lent you an umbrella.

“Oh, fuck, I’m so sorry,” the handsome stranger tells you, “I didn’t know. You can keep it - I’ve brought another.” You laugh, almost hysterical.

“Of course, it’s been a year. You had more than enough time to,” you smile at this handsome young man, filled with arcanum, and wish to get to know him better. From what you have seen, he is kind, and forgiving - a heart so big you could see it from years away.

“Yeah, I guess,” he laughs, and you smile at him.

“My name’s English. Jake English. And you are?” He laughs again.

“James Bond? Movie fan, I see. The name’s Dirk Strider. Nice to meet you again, English. Maybe you won’t steal my umbrella this time,” you cringe. God, you should probably return that. But you don’t remember seeing it, not after that green light. Just the tiles stained red with-

“Dude. You okay?” he seems concerned, but you can’t really tell behind those darn shades. You focus on _him_ , on his face, and drag yourself out of the memory. 

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Hey, chum, do you wanna get some coffee, maybe?” He starts, stepping back a bit. Is it really that shocking that you’d ask him out for coffee? He’s a pretty cool guy, after all.

“Yeah,” he says finally, “I’d love that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at me on Tumblr [@felinedetached](https://felinedetached.tumblr.com/)


End file.
